User blog:YT: General Masher/More Leaderboard Strategies
Introduction Hey guys, I'm Gmasher! By no means am I copy-pasting off any of King Dragonhoff's work, I'm just adding to his guide. Why you might ask, because there is more than just defending and attacking. There are troop setups, statue setups and prototype setups. Besides this is post September 2016 update, meaning that we have these fancy Cryoneers, Hot Pots and more. I will also be talking about task force leaderboard strategies as I have a ton of experience in task forces (so much that I was once ranked co-leader, but then I left because their tf is is inactive). That said, let's get started! Individual Leaderboard Strategies When I mean individual strategies, I mean going up there by yourself. I'm gonna go over some stuff about before reaching a certain point, then go over some troop combinations, statue combinations and prototype combinations. Anyways, moving on! Before reaching HQ level 20 When you start playing the game, you have two choices when it comes to upgrade orders: Rushing or Maxing. If you're going for the individual leaderboards, do the Maxing strategy. How this works is you max out everything for a certain hq level, then upgrade the hq to the next level and repeat. The reason why is because when going for the individual leaderboards, you need to think about both offense and defense. Magma Hound is doing something similar by only focusing on offense which used to work, but now that we figured out that having a ton of ice statues boosted will give you a ton of diamonds this will change how we play. Max out everything both on your island and in your armory so that you will be prepared for the boosted offense players. When you're at this stage of preparing yourself, run all offense statues (troop health and damage and gbe) because defensive statues won't matter until later. Troop Load-outs Please don't mess around with troop compositions when going for the leaderboards, because boosted ice statues are a different story. When going for the individual leaderboards, you need to have the right troop composition for all of the pvp bases. You also need to have all your offense statues boosted because the defensive statues on the enemy bases will be boosted all the time. I find these troop load-outs most effective when going for the leaderboards: RZMC: 3-2-2-1 Hooka: 4-4 TRM: 6-1-1 For all of these strategies (besides TRM), you're gonna have to smoke to a location where you can destroy the shield generator real quickly. Most of the base layouts will consist of 2 shield generators. One on one side, one on the other. With RZMC and Hooka, this is how you should attack a double shield generator base: 1. Bart (usually 1 barrage, 2 artillery) the Rocket Launcher (for TRM, the Boom Cannons) on the side you choose. 2. Drop your troops in the side you choose. 3. Clear out a few defenses on the beach (for TRM, clear out all the defenses on the side of choice + the center defenses). 4. Drop a flare close to the shield generator on the side you choose (do it later if you are using TRM). 5. Drop smoke screens on your troops as they walk up to the flare (skip this if using TRM). 6. Drop a flare directly on the shield generator. 7. Shock the splash damage defenses that can possibly hit your zookas (skip this if using TRM). 8. Once the shield generator is destroyed, support your troops with shock bombs, medkits and critters as they mow down the half of the island you choose (for TRM do it before reaching the shield generator). 9. Drop a flare on where the shield generator was destroyed (usually touching the land wall/docks. Also, skip this if suing TRM as you will need it for the Boom Cannons that can reach your tanks). 10. Drop a flare directly on the hq (for TRM, drop the flares on the Boom Cannons that can hit your tanks while shocking those). 11. Hope that you win because by then it would be a time battle (as Cosmic Duo would say). For 1 shield generator bases, the shield generator is usually put in the back of the island. If it isn't, its on either side of the island so do the same strategy except it should be easier as there is only 1 shield generator that's already dealt with. If its in the back do the same thing, just note that you will need more gbe as your troops are traveling to the opposite side of the island where there are still defenses covering the entire island. For TRM, the time battles are worse as the tanks do the same damage as the zookas but fire 2x slower than the zookas. Although for TRM, you get much less casualties than with RZMC and Hooka. Statue Load-outs This depends on how much vp you have: If you have 1200- vp, have 2 ice statues. If you have 1200-1400 vp, have 3 ice statues. If you have 1400-1800 vp, have 4 ice statues. If you have 1800+ vp, have 5-7 ice statues. Fill in the rest of your spots with red and/or gbe statues. For defense, I would recommend trying Trudle R's hq level 20, 21 or 22 base layout depending on what level your hq is. Note: Put the shield generator around the residences because that way, its a long walk and requires more smoke for the attacker. Casualties are maximized as most of the defenses can reach the troops on the shield generator having the attacker consume more gbe for shock bombs. And more ice statues help as your vp count increase. Prototype Load-outs Of course, getting the mark 3 prototypes will give you the best chance at defending. As my friends always say: "Bigger is better." When you are going for the individual leaderboards, your weapon lab should be level 5 because having 2 prototypes will give you another great chance at defending. The 2 prototypes I would recommend for vp pushing are 1 doom cannon (I was gonna put shock blaster but now the doom cannon has splash damage) and 1 shield generator. The doom cannon should be placed where the shock blaster is in Trudle R's bases. For the shield generator, place that where the residences are for maximized casualties. Those hidden boom mines and hidden shock mines will also help for smokey warriors, increasing casualties in smokey warriors means they are less effective when going for the shield generator then the hq. Always build the mark 3 prototypes as those have the highest health in the game as well as the highest damage (this is only useful for the scorchers). Task Force Leaderboards If you check out the task force you are in or scrolling down the recommended task forces, look to the right and you will see a tab called "high scores". Tap that and you will be sent to the highest positioned task forces that got there by having the highest force points possible. How do they do that? I can explain! Pre-HQ level 20 To even join a task force, your hq should be level 6, otherwise friends will have to invite you in. Once you got your hq up to level 6, you should have about 100 vp so finding a task force to join should be much easier. As you progress, your teammates should as well because they are all trying to reach the same goal as you. The founder of the task force (who is normally at a range of hq level 16+) will get the rank leader. Normally, the 3 highest level player among them will get the rank co leader (at the range of hq level 12+). Usually, if a player is loyal and about hq level 9+ they will be promoted officer. So stay in the task force if it is active, but leave and find another if that isn't the case. Your task force needs force points to progress up the leaderboards. Starting off at Milk Run isn't a bad idea for a task force that just begun. If you win, move on to the next operation and keep doing so until you reach your highest point. The size of the task force depends on where you should keep doing the operation: A 5 man task force should keep doing Tank Tango all the time. A 10 man task force should be doing Mambo all the time. A 25 man task force should be doing Dead End all the time. A 50 man task force should be doing Massive Attack or Forlorn Hope all the time. There are different leaderboards for different sized task forces. Accumulating the highest amount of force points possible is the best thing you could do for your task force. Troop Load-outs For Tank Tango, you can simply use the strategies that are normally used around the 600 vp range because Tank Tango should be handled real easily by a 5 man task force in which everyone is maxed out. Mambo and above is a different story. Why? Because by then the health on the buildings are boosted so much that you pretty much have to run a good troop load-out and boost your offensive statues. For those, I would recommend the following strategies: Smokey Hooka. Smooka. Smokey Scooka. Smokey Scorchers. If you don't know how to even use those strategies, check out my "smooka guide for newbies" blog. Smokey scorchers should be the same as the others except you pretty much swap damage for endurance. Statue Load-outs If you are going to be focused on operations all the time, the statue setup will have to be different compared to the individuals leaderboard push. For the task force leaderboard push, all of your teammates should have only statues that benefit you while attacking. That would be: Troop Health. Troop Damage. Gunboat Energy. Troop Damage and Gunboat Energy prove themselves the most useful statues for smooka. If you are using smokey scorchers, that's when Troop Health and Gunboat Energy prove most useful. Zookas are all about damage, scorchers are all about health. For scooka and hooka, take all 3. Why? Because you are pretty much combining both of the attack strategies into one smokey shield strategy, and this is pretty much the best attack strategy for operations because the zookas stay safe while the heavies/scorchers take the beating. If you are using a smooka (like) strategy, shock all the splash damage defenses that can reach them. If you are using smokey scorchers shock any of the single target buildings (also the doom cannons). Prototype Load-outs By NO means should you focus on defending when going for the tf leaderboards. Why? Because operations are all about offense, attacking the power bases. Run none to any prototypes for all I know, defending isn't useful for operations as much as for their individual leaderboard. You get better chances at getting intel when attacking PvPs and NPCs and Tr T than defending against players and Hammerman. Conclusion Overall, attempting to reach the leaderboards whether on your own or with friends isn't gonna be easy as a lot of strategy is required and adrenaline starts to kick in. If the strategies are pulled off correctly, it should result in a win. Anyways, I hope this is somewhat useful! If you have any compliments regarding this blog, post those in the comment section below. If you have any general compliments, post those in my message wall. Thanks for reading! Category:Blog posts Category:Play Style Guides